At the EOL of Win7 RTM, what will happen?

[mwmorph]

My rig has completely switched over to Windows 7 RTM 7000 as the main OS because it is simply awesome compared to Vista and XP. I find stability, reliability, etc much better. The only problem is, come August, Win7 will be phased out for the official release, so I have 2 questions:
1. When will Windows 7 be released?
2. When it is released, can I buy it and upgrade my install without wiping all my data?

TIA

 

[ViRGE]

RTM = Release To Manufacturing, otherwise known as the official release. You're not running W7 RTM, you're running W7 Beta 1.

1. Late this year. In the mean time you can move up to W7 Release Candidate 1 when it comes out in a couple of weeks.
2. You can, but it's not tested or recommended.

 

[13Gigatons]

Many people were doing the upgrade route instead clean install and most of the time it works fine but it can produce a couple of bugs and Microsoft support will not fix them.

The RC is out now and requires that you modify one file in order to enable upgrading from older beta versions.

Also the RC EOL is March 2010.

 

[XBoxLPU]

So lets say we install the RTM version (or even the RC) which expire next March. Can we just purchase/upgrade the installed version to a bought retail copy?

 

[BD2003]

Most likely you will be able to upgrade from RC to RTM, although you might have to tweak a file or two.

Not that I'd recommend it.

 

[Andrmgic]

Clean install is always best. Some people who upgraded from 7077 to 7100 are having some issues that don't occur with a clean install of 7100.